{"id":84265,"date":"2019-06-18T11:00:42","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T10:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=84265"},"modified":"2023-04-07T14:26:52","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T13:26:52","slug":"review-remo-drive-natural-everyday-degradation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-remo-drive-natural-everyday-degradation\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Remo Drive \u2013 Natural, Everyday Degradation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-84267\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Remo-Drive-natural-cover-compressor-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Remo-Drive-natural-cover-compressor-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Remo-Drive-natural-cover-compressor-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Remo-Drive-natural-cover-compressor-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Remo-Drive-natural-cover-compressor-465x465.jpg 465w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Remo-Drive-natural-cover-compressor-500x500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Remo-Drive-natural-cover-compressor-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Remo-Drive-natural-cover-compressor.jpg 925w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>You need confidence and a sense of humour to call your debut album \u2018<em>Greatest Hits<\/em>\u2019. It paid off for <strong>Remo Drive<\/strong> and they were quickly snapped up by Epitaph Records. \u2018<em>Natural, Everyday Degradation<\/em>\u2019 picks up where\u00a0last year\u2019s \u2018<em>Pop Music<\/em>\u2019 EP left off. Quickly, you\u2019ll discover much of their zest has been traded for maturity. It\u2019s a questionable but surefooted swap.<\/p>\n<p>Choose any song here and you\u2019ll see the\u00a0Minnesotan brothers, Erik and Stephen Paulson, make a solid songwriting team. At their best Stephen\u2019s big bass grooves create a bed allowing Erik\u2019s emo-tinged voice to shine. It\u2019s a recipe for bright, punchy pop-rock songs with \u2018<em>Shakin\u2019<\/em>\u2019 and \u2018<em>Dog<\/em>\u2019 feeling energetic and fun.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Remo Drive - &quot;Around the Sun&quot;\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-bgBeeDIEdc?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>However, working with Joe Reinhart has given the music a bloated, slightly over-full sound. When combined with Erik Paulson\u2019s other, blander singing style it leads to disarmingly middle-of-the-road songs. You\u2019ll have forgotten \u2018<em>The Devil<\/em>\u2019 or \u2018<em>Mirror<\/em>\u2019 while they\u2019re still playing. Thankfully, many of the song arrangements try to avoid this disappointing sag. Everywhere you\u2019re getting tricks such as the thrashing drums on \u2018<em>The Truth<\/em>\u2019 or well-placed guitar squeals, which drag the material up by its bootstraps.<\/p>\n<p>Again, all the songs are robust, but it\u2019s frustrating to hear the band loosen up. They\u2019re far more effective on songs like &#8216;<em>Halo<\/em>&#8216; where simple, muted guitar strums create bite and surprising drive. Faster songs like \u2018The Grind\u2019 also crackle with mischief but its chorus is forgettable. Many of them are and it\u2019s a shame there aren\u2019t a few bigger hooks to hold your interest. However, there is variety. When they make things slower and sadder on \u2018<em>Separate Beds<\/em>\u2019 it shows how well their more experimental side can work.<\/p>\n<p>Maturity may have robbed <strong>Remo Drive<\/strong> of their sense of fun, but when they let their creativity shine, it can be rewarding. \u2018<em>Natural, Everyday Degradation<\/em>\u2019 is solidly built but struggles to be more than a pleasant diversion.<\/p>\n<p>3.5\/5<\/p>\n<p>\u2018<em>Natural Everyday Degradation<\/em>\u2019 by <strong>Remo Drive<\/strong> is out now on <strong>Epitaph Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Remo Drive links: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.remodriveband.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RemoDrive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RemoDrive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/remodrivemn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/remodrive.bandcamp.com\/album\/natural-everyday-degradation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Ian Kenworthy (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/whisperingsand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@WhisperingSand<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;When Remo Drive let their creativity shine, it can be rewarding&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":84267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5879,126,15621,17205,16073],"class_list":["post-84265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-reviews","tag-epitaph-records","tag-ian-kenworthy","tag-natural-everyday-degradation","tag-remo-drive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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